CORPUS CHRISTI - On Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, in his third floor courtroom of the Travis County Courthouse, District Judge John Dietz began hearing the latest lawsuit alleging that the state’s funding of public education was inadequate and unfairly distributed.

No stranger to the issues involved, Judge Dietz had presided over the previous school finance trial in 2004 that lasted five weeks. As the current trial began, six different plaintiff groups, comprising more than 600 Texas school districts, represented by 15 lawyers, delivered their opening arguments.

The schools’ contention: State funding for public education was not keeping pace with Texas’ growing and increasingly diverse student population, exacerbated by $5.4 billion in cuts by the 2011 Legislature, despite a more rigorous accountability system.

The state’s contention: School districts need to be more efficient and competitive in their operations.

The first witness was former state demographer and Rice University professor Steven Murdock. Dr. Murdock testified that Texas was becoming more ethnically and economically diverse — a point that would become a foundation of the school districts’ arguments.

What followed, in the ensuing days and weeks, was a string of superintendents from large and small, rural, urban, and suburban districts; school funding authorities; state accountability and testing officials; out-of-state consultants; so-called efficiency experts; and voucher advocates. Their testimony concluded on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

Now, 15 weeks to the day, and after 43 days of testimony — much of it mind-numbing — Judge Dietz is scheduled to hear closing arguments in the case today. Sometime mid-afternoon, he will hand down his ruling.

And then the procedural, legal, legislative, and political wheels will churn, probably for years. The Legislature, currently sitting on a $8.8 billion cash surplus, and a so-called Rainy Day Fund approaching $12 billion, will certainly be called upon to spend some of that money on education — to, at least, restore the $5.4 billion in cuts from 2011.

The Republican leadership has not shown any inclination to restore that funding — at least not yet. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has advocated leaving some of those cash reserves in the Legislature’s “hip pocket,” believing the state will eventually be ordered to pump more money into public schools.

Technically, it will be early March before Judge Dietz enters his final, written order in the case, after all parties have several weeks to file closing briefs. Then the losing side is almost certain to appeal directly to the Texas Supreme Court.

Will the state’s highest court hear oral arguments and issue an opinion in the fall — a very short time frame for a complex case of this magnitude — or will that ruling be forthcoming in the spring 2014? Will the court order immediate action in 2014 — an election year for governor, lieutenant governor, and other state offices — or will it direct the 84th Legislature, convening in January 2015, to take action? Will any legislative remedy be delayed until a special session in 2016?

As a final historical point of reference: after Judge Dietz’s ruling in the last school finance trial, in September 2004, and after all the procedural, legal, legislative, and political wheels churned in that case, it was a special session of the Legislature, in July 2006, that finally passed the current school funding plan. So, about the best advice that anyone can offer right now is to stay tuned and breathe deeply.